Do this some time: get to advanced search on eBay.com, type in Obama, click completed listings only, then choose "highest price + postage" from the drop down menu on the list of items. Then do the same for McCain.
For months now, I've been running this random check of the popularity of the two candidates' memorabilia. You don't have to work too hard to know whose stuff sells more quickly and at a higher price.
Full set of 5 Obama prints: sold for $11,000
Official-Sounding Caveat: This is not definitive. The results merely reflect eBay-shopper preferences, not those of the general U.S. voting population.... But you can root out some figures (and insights) worthy of note.
Search Obama: 12,443 items sold.
On July 21, for instance, someone paid $US 11,000 for a complete series of Barack Obama Poster Prints by Shepard Fairey, a "Signed by Artist Limited Edition." A single poster signed by Obama himself went for $US 8000.
In fact, in the last 2 weeks, another 13 of those prints sold for between $US 2975 and $US 1500 -- mostly they went in the low $US 2K range. Another maybe 15 more went for between $US 900 and $US 700. A rather tacky Fairey print of Obama's face superimposed on Abraham Lincoln's sold for $US 900 -- numerous copies in fact have sold for around or just below that price. A signed copy of Obama's "Dreams from My Father" (free postage) went for $633.78. I checked through more than 110 items to find something selling for less than $100, then I got bored .. so who knows how many items sold in the last 3 weeks for more or less than $100.
OK.
Signed McCain postcard: sold for $445.00
Now search McCain: 2,659 items found.
Hmmm, 12,443, take away 2,659.. umm, that's 9,784 more Obama stuff selling than McCain stuff.
And that's just the start.
On August 4, a personally autographed John McMain postcard sold on eBay for $US 445.00. And that was the highest selling item in the last 3 weeks.
On August 3, McCain's 1999 memoir, "Faith of My Fathers" (free shipping) signed by the candidate scored a top bid of just $US 122.50.
Of the total 51 other McCain items which sold in the same 3 weeks, only 1 went for over $300 -- most were below $US 80, several in the the mid-$US 200s. I only had to search 12 items to find McCain stuff selling at less than $100. There were 12 as opposed to 1 gazillion for Obama.
So, what do the eBay numbers suggest? What conclusions can we draw? That Obama supporters are eBay addicts with too much spare change? That McCain supporters are just learning about the intertubes and eBay and don't have a lot of cash to throw away on memorabilia? That Obama craftsmen make better stuff? Maybe. Or maybe not. We need a professional eBay pundit class, an eBay cable station dedicated 24/7 to reading meaning (or utter nonsense) into our interest in buying the election campaign stuff!
Oh, one last thing. Did you have a good look at John McCain's signature??? That is scary.